This movie, which as I am to understand took less than half a year to film, is more than unfortunate but it is also an example of how the film industry in the United States is appalingly flawed.

We have a story that has become quite popular worldwide, and an industry that looks at the success of what they consider to be valueble merchandise being pushed on the film industry hapharzardly for the sake of making money. Though in our culture most would consider this to be an advancement for the Dragonball franchise, it is worthy to consider the following point.

A great deal of the success of Dragonball is largely due to the median in which it was intended, animation or illustration. This is because, obviously, animation is able to portray action and story in methods film is incapable of reproducing though there are other reasons for it’s effectiveness such as the physical humor embedded in the franchise’s simplistic design and manner of character deformation. Taking this element away from the story already eliminates a great deal of why the story was effective to begin with, but even so, a Dragonball movie still seems concievable for it’s second element, the character Son Goku.

Dragonball is actually a very simply structured arch plotline with a protagonist who always stands above everyone he faces and somehow exhibits even more god-like strength even in impossible situations,a structure that is very boring and uninteresting. The reason it works so well is because the story’s hero, Son Goku, is completely ignorant to and uninterested in the modern world. With a gleeful innocence and passion he only cares about improving himself as a martial artist, even if that means the path he chooses leads him into conflict. And it is this simple nature that puts him at odds with, but also grants him an edge over the mentality of the world around him. It is this that the audience empathizes with and enjoys, because it serves as an example that a carefree life spent persuing wholeheartedly what we wish to achieve and laughing off all the other nonsense is truly the best life. It is also this attitude that changes the hearts of the many foes Son Goku encounters (let’s not forget that ALL of his friends were either opponents, rivals or at the very least stood in opposition of him before they became his friends.) Thus is can be inferred that a Dragonball movie, possessing these elements is in fact a possibility.

Of course that brings us back to reality. From this epic tale we now have the story of an unpopular high school student who has to somehow save the world while trying to impress a girl he likes. We have not only lost all sense of the story, but we have also lost the point of “why” the story existed to begin with. The end product is a second rate kung fu film directed by a commercial director whose films include two horror movies and probably one of the worst directed kung fu movies of all time. Throw is special effects and a piccolo that looks like a villain straight out of power rangers and voila! Dragonball is born. A kung fu action adventure baring the name of a classic story in order to market a product to a new audience. It’s funny to think about this movie as being the first impression of Dragonball for many, and it’s even funnier to imagine the trend of anime to film blockbusters that will most definately follow. But like I said before, that’s the industry.